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RELATIVISM

Schools in Great Britain are no longer required to teach the children the difference between right and wrong under current plans to revise the core goals of the Nation's Curriculum. Education ministers in Great Britain also propose deleting references to promoting leadership skills and a requirement to teach children about the nation's cultural heritage. Revised wording for the education plan states young people should become "responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society."

Instead of requiring students to learn about their cultural heritage, the proposal says individuals should be helped to "understand different cultures and traditions and have a strong sense of their own place in the world." Rather than requiring teaching the difference between right and wrong, the new wording, which reflects a relative worldview, calls on teachers to encourage pupils the develop "secure values and beliefs."

The proposed changes will be discussed formally next year as part of an ongoing effort to give schools more flexibility in the way they teach 11 to 14 year-old students. Opponents of the planned changes say teachers did not need to be told to teach children to distinguish between right and wrong. Professor Alan Smithers of the University of Buckingham's center for education and employment research said, "The idea that they think it is appropriate to dispense with right and wrong is a bit alarming."

—http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2292741,00.html. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Proverbs 22:6 (HCSB) "Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."